Thursday, 5 January 2017

TUCSON SHOW INFO: For the far too rapidly approaching Tucson show, I will be on the road from January 25th until around February 15th. For the show itself, I will be in my usual spot: Ramada Limited (665 N. Freeway, Tucson) room 134. I should be open by mid to late morning Saturday January 28th. I likely will indeed stay through the bitter end – February 11th will be the last day. I open the door most days at 10AM. I will have the door open most evenings until around 9:30pm or so (or later if people are visiting/ still wandering about) but there may be a couple nights I will be out for dinner or such but that should be rare.

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.I had set aside a sealed ammo can of really nice larger shrapnel pieces (now quite rare) many, many years ago. A bulk order for some pieces that I didn’t have readily available in my “working inventory” caused me to pull this batch out. WOW! I really set aside some nice piece way back when. These listed here are all the super classic thin, twisted, heavily stretch-marked top quality specimens one desires from a shrapnel piece. The price might seem high (and it is compared to when I set these aside) but I am offering these at or below what pretty much any Sikhote-Alin shrapnel specimens (generally plain and small) would cost to replace from the very few sources that have them these days. 1) Shrapnel fragments, classic shape, wire brushed clean:a) 51.1 grams - 47mm x 35mm x 10mm - $50b) 91.7 grams - 64mm x 35mm x 10mm - $87c) 134.1 grams - 60mm x 44mm x 17mm - $120d) 247.2 grams - 70mm x 50mm x 20mm - $210e) 639.2 grams - 90mm x 60mm x 35mm - $500

DIMMITT, Texas: Ordinary chondrite (H3.7). Found 1942. Tkw = about 200 kilograms.Here are some wonderful individuals that I set aside many, many years ago. I got them when TCU/ Monig collection first started to release specimens to the collecting world (they have since stopped). These all have nice rounded edges, sculpted shapes. They are complete as found (except I have cleaned the dirt off of them) and are mostly primary crusted but some do show some old breaks (most being likely secondary crust). These have a pleasing orange brown to dark chocolate brown color. Unfortunately, none of these has a clear Monig label as, back in those very early days, TCU required that these be removed in hopes that the larger meteorite world would not know where these specimens came from (that didn’t work. TCU soon got flooded with requests for trades and sales – some 200 e-mails in one day at one point I was told!). 1) Nice sculpted individuals:a) 40.6 grams - 38mm x 32mm x 17mm - $100b) 86.1 grams - 55mm x 35mm x 30mm - $200c) 161.5 grams - 65mm x 45mm x 30mm - $365d) 299.8 grams - 65mm x 50mm x 40mm - $600e) 495.8 grams - 80mm x 60mm x 50mm - $850f) 866.7 grams - 120mm x 55mm x 55mm - $1300

NWA 8387: Ordinary chondrite. (LL3.9). Found before February 2014. Tkw = 1149.5 grams.Here is a piece that I pulled out of a bin of Moroccan chondrites during the 2014 Tucson Show. It looked identical to the NWA (7197) L3.8 that I had offered on a mailed list immediately before the show. I thought that this was another piece and would save time (and some money) on getting it “market ready”. It turned out, however, that this was NOT the same as NWA (7197) but quite a bit rarer. This is an almost equilibrated LL chondrite, not an L. LLs are quite a bit less common then Ls (something like 1/5th or 1/7th as many I think) and the 3s and 4s are the rarer of this group (actually 4s are a bit scarcer than 3s, interestingly). This is quite nice. It has lots of chondrules of all sizes (though the light color makes it a bit hard to see many of them at a casual glance), metal and sulfides in a light mottled gray to tan matrix.1) Slices:a) 4.7 grams - 24mm x 15mm x 4mm - $24b) 8.1 grams - 34mm x 23mm x 3mm - $40c) 16.2 grams - 46mm x 33mm x 3mm - $80d) 34.8 grams - 55mm x 52mm x 4mm - $165e) 60.9 grams - 87mm x 46mm x 4mm - $280 – complete slice.f) 96.6 grams - 105mm x 54mm x 5mm - $425 – complete slice.2) End piece:405.3 grams - 100mm x 56mm x 35mm - $1600 – Main mass.

SaU 582, Oman: Ordinary chondrite (L5) S3, W2. Found March 12, 2010. Tkw = 55 kilograms.This might be my last “new” Oman stone. It seems that the Meteoritical Society has indeed set up rules against researchers working on “things that may not have been fully legally exported”. I think this one got done just before that was announced (and there is still some argument as to whether or not there truly was any kind of ban on meteorites from Oman at the time this was found. Frankly, I’d be surprised if they really were concerned about an L5 “getting away” regardless). Anyway, this is nothing special really, just a typical weathered L5 but it is very affordable (for fully studied and prepared material anyway). Chondrules and some metal is visible in the medium to dark brown matrix. Robert Ward found this stuff as a number of large stones (7kg the largest I think) and fragments in a small area. I got a couple kilos of the fragments from him a couple years ago and finally got around to preparing them for sale.1) Slices:a) 13.4 grams - 30mm x 28mm x 5mm - $10b) 23.0 grams - 45mm x 40mm x 5mm - $17c) 44.1 grams - 60mm x 40mm x 5mm - $333) End pieces:a) 45.2 grams - 55mm x 22mm x 18mm - $32b) 94.9 grams - 60mm x 35mm x 20mm - $65c) 162.3 grams - 65mm x 60mm x 20mm - $95

NWA 10637: Primitive achondrite (Brachinite). Found before February 2016. Tkw = 554.2 grams.It has been a loooong time since I have offered a brachinite on a catalog (possibly more than 20 years, when I had a couple chunks from Australia in the early ‘90s). I picked up this natural fragment late in the show last year (in fact, I think it is the only NWA meteorite I picked up in Tucson last year). Brachinites are one of the very rarest and least understood meteorite types. They are mostly olivine (this one is 87% olivine) along with trace amounts of pyroxene. These rocks likely represent mantle material from an unknown parent body (though their oxygen isotopes overlap those of Angrites). These slices are somewhat weathered (dark to medium almost orange brown) but clearly show the classic equigranular crystal texture of brachinites.1) Slices:a) 1.5 grams - 20mm x 9mm x 3mm - $30b) 2.9 grams - 20mm x 13mm x 4mm - $58c) 4.9 grams - 30mm x 17mm x 3mm - $98d) 9.0 grams - 42mm x 28mm x 3mm - $180 – full slice.e) 17.8 grams - 64mm x 30mm x 3mm - $320 – full slice.f) 36.4 grams - 80mm x 45mm x 3.5mm - $625 – full slice.

PALLADOT: Extraterrestrial faceted olivine gemstones.Here is an assortment of wonderful little faceted peridot (olivine) gemstones from the Admire, Kansas pallasite. Admire is one of the most beautiful meteorites in the world but it is known (generally) for rapid rusting (though I have a nice 9.2kg chunk that is indeed very stable – It will be on display for sale in Tucson). However, pieces that do fall apart turned out to be a good source for true outer space gems stones. It turns out that pallasite olivine is indeed noticeably different (under microscopic inspection) from common terrestrial peridot gems. The pallisitc material has unique inclusions (and often shows a “cats eye” Chatoyancy effect – also unique to pallisitic peridot) such that the G.I.A. has officially recognized these as a new gemstone type – now officially listed as “Palladot” (a combination of the words pallasite and peridot). Anyway, here is an assortment of round “brilliant” cut stones at a price of about 1/5th what they were originally priced at. Supply is VERY limited. I do have a few oval and emerald cut (square/ rectangular) in similar sizes and prices available, so ask if that is what you prefer. 1) Round brilliant cut gemstones in glass fronted plastic display box.a) 1.5mm diameter stone - about .016 carat - $20b) 2.0mm diameter stone – about .035 carat - $35c) 2.5mm diameter stone – about .064 carat - $60d) 3.0mm diameter stone – about .10 carat - $90

Please note: Shipping: For small US orders $3 should still be fine for now. Larger orders are now $13 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it). Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $10 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Thankfully, it seems that the rate for registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $13. I do have a new fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.